Influencer marketing: how to forge fruitful partnerships with influencers to promote products?

These content creation professionals are mainly active on social networks or video platforms. By 2022, the influencer marketing market will be worth around 15 billion euros (source). Influencer marketing, the modern equivalent of teleshopping, is an effective way of introducing your products or services to a new audience. By associating yourself with the brand image of influencers, you benefit from their aura and trust capital.

Preparing a successful influencer marketing partnership

To launch an influencer marketing campaign, it's essential to first define clear and specific objectives for the campaign. Typical objectives include selling products, increasing brand awareness, generating qualified leads, or recruiting new customers.

However, it is important not to disperse efforts by pursuing several objectives simultaneously. A campaign should focus on a single objective at a time.

Once your objective has been established, it's crucial to determine your target audience: gender, age, socio-professional category, etc. The more you refine these answers, the more certain you'll be of reaching the right people. The more you refine these answers, the more certain you'll be of reaching the right people. In other words, a thorough knowledge of your current customers' profiles will make it much easier to choose the influencers you want to work with.

It's important to note that different social networks attract different audiences in terms of age and interests.

Once you've answered this question, you can move on to the final step: establishing clear guidelines for your influencer partnerships.

The idea is to define the influencer's role, specifying what he or she can and cannot do in the content he or she will create to promote your products or services. For example, to promote costume jewelry:"During the week of September 4, the influencer must present the jewelry and highlight its main features in a video lasting 1 to 2 minutes. The jewelry must be worn by the influencer. The stones must be clearly identified as 'synthetic stones'. In addition, terms such as 'knock', 'rhinestones' and 'verroterie' are strictly avoided. Influencers must also share the link provided by the advertiser in their video or description."

Working with influencers

As mentioned earlier, the various social networks target varied audiences. For beauty partnerships, women's media, Snapchat, Instagram and TikTok are currently the most appropriate, while for tutorials, YouTube remains a solid option. Twitch also boasts a considerable number of users, particularly for video games. The table below provides an overview of the 2023 audiences for each social network, according to SproutSocial.

(Social network 👉 Monthly users / Age group / Distribution ♀︎-♂︎ / Daily use)

Facebook 👉 2,91 billion / 25-34 years / 44 % ♀︎-56 % ♂︎ / 30 min
Instagram 👉 2 billion / 18-24 years / 48 % ♀︎ - 52 % ♂︎ / 30 min
Tiktok 👉 834 million / 18-24 years / 54 % ♀︎ - 46 % ♂︎ / 45 min
Twitter 👉 238 million / 18-29 years / 34 % ♀︎ - 62 % ♂︎ / 35 min
Linkedin 👉 930 million / 30-39 ans / 43 % ♀︎ - 57 % ♂︎ / NC
Pinterest 👉 450 millions / 25-34 ans / 76 % ♀︎ - 17% ♂︎ / 14 min
Snapchat 👉 750 millions / 18-24 ans / 51 % ♀︎ - 48 % ♂︎ / 30 min
Youtube 👉 2 billion / 15-35 ans / 51 % ♀︎ - 48% ♂︎ / 45 min

Once you've identified the right social network, the search for influencers can begin. Using keywords or hashtags related to your field will enable you to quickly identify relevant profiles. This initial step involves compiling a list of the most interesting influencers.

For each potential influencer, the number of subscribers is of course an important criterion, but it's not everything. Explore their content to discover their current partnerships and observe their ability to showcase products. Authenticity plays a crucial role in the success of influencer partnerships. Some rely heavily on transparency to gain the trust of their followers, and this pays off.

These elements should help you identify the influencer or influencers who best match the image of your brand and products.

Finally, it's essential to note that partnerships with influencers are now subject to strict regulations in France. Partnerships must be clearly indicated throughout videos, and mentions of sponsored posts must be displayed explicitly. For more information on the legal framework for publications on social networks, please consult our article on the subject: The legal framework for publications on social networks.

Once you've compiled your list, all you have to do is contact the influencer(s) to propose a partnership.

Evaluate the performance of your influencer marketing campaigns

In marketing, performance measurement is of crucial importance. It allows you to gauge the success of your campaign and gather essential information about your customers, your website and your products. Once the partnership with the influencer is up and running, and content is being distributed on social networks, tracking gives you clear visibility on the origin of traffic and sales generated on your site.

Publications on social networks such as Instagram or TikTok are quickly drowned in the mass, as the algorithms of these platforms favor recent content. Consequently, the results of a publication on one of these platforms should be observed within 48 hours of publication.

As far as YouTube's algorithm is concerned, it frequently recommends older content from the same creator. As a result, residual sales will continue to occur, but don't expect them to account for the majority of your sales.

The results of your campaigns enable you to assess their profitability and decide whether to continue working with a specific influencer.